Million new dreams

After so many years (10 years 5 months), just visited my old school for re-living so many incredible memories. It’s an incredible feeling to be remembered – to be remembered after almost a decade by an ‘Aaya amma’ (nanny in Indian schools) is incredibly moving; especially to remember a name of just-another-kid in a class of ~300 students even after 10yrs feels so special! The love, affection and care of teachers is just such an incredible gift. Most of the teachers who took class for me right from when I was ~12 yrs old remembered me. Especially, the Physics teacher with whom I share a cosmic connection, a Math Teacher who remembered me, my gang and my cheekiness to try to finish problems ahead and also not to mention the Chemistry teacher who recognized me even before I realized she was around! It’s such a gift to have been through a school that made an emotional connection to this level! Not sure, if I got super-lucky or that sheer cultural combination of our ancient Guru-Shishya respect. I’ve had not-so-good profs/teachers later, but my fundamental schooling was definitely filled with Lady teachers who truly connected with us, cared for us and really did/do remember us so very well! It felt like those “To Sir, With Love” moments.

This is not some super-fancy school in some big metro-city; mine was a simple school run by an old bank with a reasonably big campus and hadn’t changed much in the decade – except that I could see smart boards. (Super excited about the Smart Boards; now everyone can learn things much faster!)

Beyond all that, when you get to peek into the Science Expo that students and teachers together put-up, you’d realize how much of history is getting made by science – the degree of inspiration to let loose all those creativity and to begin talking about all those crazy Science Fiction “stuff”! I wasn’t a super-big fan of space for some time – to be honest, I was one of those ignorant ones who would prioritize Space a little below considering my then-understanding of unfavorable economics and that some of humanity’s fundamental problems needed solutions first. (Yet I still couldn’t control myself from spending odd hours learning and loving relativity theory back then..) As much as I wanted to be excited, I wasn’t entirely sure if space was the best investment of time, effort and cost. Then, slowly as one begins to look for answers for some of the most complex problems on the planet, you start looking more exhaustively; then, it hits you that both by economics and solution-possibilities, space is one of the most inevitable necessities. We’ve got to build those “Enterprises” – because with those advancement comes all these incredible alternate solutions for our fundamental problems. And now, I don’t refrain myself from calling me a “Trekkie” or sharing true excitement when a Rover lands on Mars or when a Mangalyaan gets onto the Martian orbit! It’s an incredible feeling when you realize that we made something walk around on the surface of another planet so far away! You can never stop from appreciating how much a cave-man evolved within this short time after Mr.Science just knocked on the front door! Such an incredible moment defining the possibilities that a “normal” set of human minds can create together!

What is even more incredible is the possibility of what a sheer ~75 million$ investment of a developing country could do. It could not only seed the imaginations and excitements of millions of kids across the billion-people country but also open up the aspirations to whole new generation!

When you go to these School Expos you can draw parallels. I found the excitement similar to the excitement of American kids back in the ’60s when Armstrong & Buzz set foot on moon – still remembering Dan Barry’s & Yvonne Cagle’s stories of how/why they decided to become Astronauts – watching Armstrong set that one foot on moon and dreaming bigger! It’s historic events like these that inspire to make many more historic moments.

When you get inside a Physics department’s expo – it blows your mind as to how even a small school in a small corner of the world can instill to dream big just because a country decides to understand Mars up-close and that it is important; important enough to prioritize this over other fundamental needs of the poverty-fighting billion. The country is definitely looking at an uphill battle towards winning over poverty with all the optimism rising around the existing Government. We sure hope that the new billion rises to make sure each of this billion would care for the 6 other human on the planet. This way we can take care of the entire humanity more easily.. 😉 (Better than fiction, right?)

4 Responses to Million new dreams

Spot on Divya, Mangalyaan has indeed motivated many of the kids back home to aim for the stars. On top of that it has shown them that they need not move to the US or Europe to pursue their passions in space science. Thank you ISRO!!! You are among the best things which our government has put our taxes to effective use.

I think that day is not too far….ISRO is testing its re-entry module in December. We are on the right track…some more funds and more of enthusiasm/motivation for bright young minds to join ISRO and off we will go to create wonders.